COTYS, John

The name of Cotys was a common one, and although it is tempting to speculate that the Bath MP in the controversial Parliament of 1447 was a member of Henry VI’s household (the same man who in 1454 served as a groom of the pantry),1 PPC, vi. 226. it is probable that the seat was in fact taken by a local man. If this was so, the MP was apparently a rather insubstantial individual, a mere chapman, whose connexions among the city elite were insufficient even to gain him entry into the ranks of the citizens called upon to attest property deeds at the guildhall. This John Cotys did, however, have commercial contacts in the London Mercers’ Company, perhaps suggesting broader trading interests than would at first sight appear.2 CPR, 1436-41, p. 217. No details of Cotys’s family background have been discovered, but it is just possible that he was in some way related to Robert Cotys I* who sat alongside him in the Commons as a Member for Bridgwater.